Monday Monday

Monday Monday.  The National Weather Service has forecast a "Hyrdologic" Event for today.  Meaning it is a rainy Monday morning here in the Tualatin River Valley.

We should start with history. . .December 7th, 1941, a day which will live in infamy. . .Nothing on Oregonlive.com front page.  Timbers-Timbers-Timbers!  It is some sports team.  Remember Pearl Harbor was the cry.  Almost gone are the generation that fought that war to keep the world free from socialist totalitarians and their minions.  America is a different country from the one they came home to, worked hard and built up.  Different.  Some would say unrecognizable to that generation.  Better, worse?  I will simply say different.

I have heard last week the DoD opened all MOS to women.  Terminal Lance has a greeting for you, welcome to the suck ladies.

See Something, Say Something. . .

"What can I do" is the question people might ask.  I say might, because many go through life in a state of normalcy bias, without seeing much of what is seen or unseen.  But the question remains.  See Something, Say Something simply did not apply in this San Bernardino action. Why? Societal castration?  Perhaps, more likely cognitive dissonance resulting from normalcy bias.

From our friends at WikiPedia:
"People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation."

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency (dissonance) tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance—as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it

See Something, and then subconsciously say no I didn't see that.  In that state there is nothing that person can do.  Is there?

Jihad is agile

Yes it is, and that is why it is succeeding.  A lovely thought isn't it?  John Robb wrote about it earlier in the year with a post titled "The Open Jihad" over at Global Guerrillas.  I know, I know, it is a linking, but this is important information o learn, know and act upon.

Does any of this sound familiar?.

1. tinkering with tactics, strategies, and technologies that can be used to advance the team;s goal.
2. testing the efficacy of these innovations by using them in production.
3. copying the innovations that work. 

Read John Robb's post, then compare the methods described to your development process.

On this date in 1947. . .

Paris and America.

So many things have been said about Paris and the attack on November 13th.  Most have been disappointing.  The thing of it is we should not be looking for "Them" to be sneaking in during the dead of night, "Them" are already here and have been for quite some time now.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November. . .

Remember, Remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder and treason plot.  Guy Fawkes Day!

Have you heard about this Million Mask March?  Anti-Capitalists in $750 designer jackets. . .

The scene from V for Vendetta.

Maureen O'Hara Died

I just found out Maureen O'Hara died Friday.

"I guess everybody was in love with Maureen O’Hara,” Clint Eastwood.

More from Vanity Fair, including a great interview with her from 2014.

"What is the quality you most like in a man?
    --  Tough, with inner kindness, like Duke had. 

Guns Sales Boom in Osterreich?

So, it appears that gun sales are on the uptick in Austria.  According to this article translated courtesy of the evil alphabet empire.   Interesting.  The key reason in this quote "The most common reason for the upgrade: fear of refugees and before dawn burglars."

St. Crispian's Day

Agincourt, and fair Harry the King.

This day is called the feast of Crispin:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispin.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispin:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

32 Years ago today.

32 Years ago today Iranian backed terrorists attacked the "barracks" of the 24 MEU at the Beirut Airport.  Stars and Stripes carried the story on the 30th anniversary.  The GWOT, Large VBIED's are nothing new, simply the lexicon and the narrative have changed.

Semper Fi.

Marine Corps Marathon 2015

For your Friday morning mirth.

Once a Marine, always a Marine.  Or should we say Marines will be Marines in all things?

The Marine Corps Marathon map is interestingly aimed at. . .

Monday, Monday.

It is a rainy Monday afternoon here in Oregon.  Nice!

I spotted this in my morning reading.  I was aware of the case from an earlier EFF post, that the ancestry.com owned database had been used and Mr. Usry had been fingered by the long arm of the law. . . What I was NOT aware of is this: He was cleared by his DNA. . .after 33 days under suspicion.

Read the article, and the EFF link.  I think this is an insidious use of technology, that of course has gone awry.  How could this not have?  Think of the Stanford Experiment?  What do you think should be done?

What Star Wars Teaches about "Hybrid Warfare"

OK, OK.  Hybrid Warfare, what the heck?  Well it is 4GW or whatever we called it before that. . .Like car bomb and truck bomb became VBIED. . .Stupid I know, but our boots were black, what did we know?  "Watch out, Medium to large sized VBIED!" as opposed to what we said in the olden days. . ."Give them a whiff of grape Captain Bragg". . . I digress, but that is the point isn't it.

For your Friday perusal and to satiate the Grunt-Nerdists I give you. . .

From Droid Armies to Luke Skywalker: What Star Wars Teaches Us About Hybrid Warfare at Small Wars Journal.

Drop, Cover and Hold!

The Great Oregon Shakeout!  Did you participate?  No, it's not just in Oregon.  It is an earthquake drill "The Great Shakeout" to promote earthquake awareness and preparedness.  It is at 1015 hours on October 15th every year.  It was just now.  I did, Drop, Cover and Hold under my great steel tanker desk. . .I need to dust and sweep under there!

Here in Oregon we live in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.  The New Yorker Magazine ran an article about it in July titled "The Really Big One."  It is a BIG DEAL here in the Pacific Northwest, or it will be when it occurs.  When, well it has occurred once every 240 years on average.  The last one was in 1700.

Oregon has been working on the problem of preparing for the BIG ONE for only a few years.  The Cascadia was only discovered in 1970.  After the 2011 quake in Japan and the resulting tsunami the coastal tsunami zone maps were revised gulping in quite a larger area that will be effected.  OPB's Oregon Field Guide has a documentary about the situation titled "Unprepared" and corresponding info to help you get prepared  Interesting title. . .

Yes it is a number is links.  So, check them out, read, learn, get ready!

Personal Kaizen

Great post from the Art of Manliness, Get 1% Better Every Day: The Kaizen Way to Self-Improvement. Now it should be a great big Duh moment for me, Mr. Kaizen, Kanban. . .but a dull impact somewhere on the backside is necessary now and again.

So, do a little something everyday.  "Try to do just 1% better than the day before. Start small and make your increases gradual. Avoid the temptation to get impatient and start rushing forward and taking bigger leaps. Take it slow, steady, and consistent."  Good stuff.

What can you do?  I have a list or three, starting with walking, and blogging.  Expect posts from me more and more frequently.

Enjoy your Friday!

Saturday Night Movie - The Way Ahead.

Saturday Night Movie - The Way Ahead 1944.

It is a British wartime propaganda film.  It's message is straight forward: It is going to take all of us to win.  The movie follows a group of men called up from civilian life. Suddenly thrust into the soldier's life, they don't like it. . .You follow their transformation from whiny recruit to cohesive rifle platoon.  Led by their platoon leader David Niven and their platoon sergeant, a pre-war regular, they train and deploy to Tunisia.  The movie ends in their first fight against the retreating Afrika Korps.

None of them are wounded or killed.  The characters are simple, but the diversity would allow the British wartime audience to find someone they could connect and empathize with.  Which is the intent.

Overall a good simple WW2 flick.

Saturday Night Movie - The Rocketeer

Saturday Night Movie - The Rocketeer.

What a fun movie.  It takes it's story from a comic, inspired by 1930s serials.  Action, adventure, good good guys, really bad bad guys, Howard Hughes, Spruce Goose, Rocket packs, NAZIs!  We had a lot of fun watching it.

VJ Day - 70 Years Ago Today.

Today is the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day.  I did not see anything locally about this.  There was one article in the Hillsboro Argus about the local Congressional representative presenting a 94 year old woman with medals.  The woman had enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in 1943 and serving in the United States Army until her retirement in 1972 attaining the rank of Sergeant Major.  Nice story.

What about it?  VJ Day.

Here is a video from the Royal British Legion, the best I've seen for the 70th.  Watch it, listen and hear the voices.  Both what they say and what the speaker feels.

ISIS is here?

Interesting read from the Investor's Business Daily, "ISIS Organizing Small Armies Inside America."  Another headline from the London Daily Mail, always sensationalist.

I see it as quite plausible, therefore a risk to be managed.  What do you think?

"...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

46 years ago today Neil Armstrong uttered those words as he stepped out onto the Lunar surface.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html

Cesar Chavez Day

Yep, today marks the birthday of Cesar Chavez, organizer/founder/voice of the United Farm Workers Union in California's central valley.  He was an American you know, a veteran (a squid) of World War Two.  He was a classic organizer of the Chicago School.  When ranchers brought in scabs to cross the UFW picket lines, he called Immigration and they were deported back to Mexico.  What?  Yes, Cesar Chavez was an American union organizer, organizing for American Union workers.  He and Dolores Huerta fought the Braceros Program and as a result of their efforts Congress ended it in 1964.  Political expediency. The thing is this, those first grape workers in Delano, California that struck for the UFW were Filipino-Americans. . .Interesting hmmm?

Try and get that straight.  Doesn't fit the current societal narrative does it?  John Adams said of the massacre trial "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Return To Iwo Jima

Good article over at the BBC.  Wood Williams (Cpl USMC, MoH) was one of the veterans attending.  So was Tsuruji Akikusa, an 18 year old radio operator in the Japanese Navy in February, 1945.  The article talks about Mr. Akikusa's experience being wounded in the initial Naval bombardment, and eventual capture in a semi-conscious state at the end of April.  A bit of BBC we (USA) are the bad guys slant to it of course.  Good to see Woody Williams doing well!

Semper Fi.

240 Years Ago Today - Give me liberty, or give me death!

Two hundred and forty years ago today, Patrick Henry delivered his great speech to the Second Virginia Convention on the rights of the colonies. They were meeting not at the capitol Williamsburg, but farther inland in Richmond to put some distance between themselves and Lord Dunmore and his Marines.  Concluding with the declarative statement "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" It became a rallying cry of the American Revolution.

The text of the speech is available at Colonial Williamsburg's site.  Some of the information presented there is skewed with the post-modern, progressive interpretation, but you can get the gist of things.

Privacy, in the Internet of Things?

From the standpoint of simplicity, simply admit upfront there IoT is not private. There is no privacy there. Period. Starting from that as a baseline, you will be able to manage in small bites which will add a slight fog to the data you cannot help but exude. . .

https://hbr.org/2015/02/managing-privacy-in-the-internet-of-things

The Mecklenburg Declaration

Interesting post from the Journal of the American Revolution on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  Some, Thomas Jefferson for instance, claim it was "spurious", not fact.  Others, John Adams it represented the "genuine sense of America at that moment."  You can read the Declarations text here.

It was taken the month after Lexington and Concord.  I believe the reporting of the day stand it as fact.  This particular article mentions reference of the declaration in Southern Revolutionary War pension applications.  It was fun to search the rolls for my own ancestors.  They are there in the North Carolina Militia and Virginia Continentals.

It may well be simply Jefferson's policy in later life to ensure his own legacy and discount anything that preempts his own work?  Probably.

Today in 1965

The 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed at Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam.

70 years ago today

On this day in 1945 the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions landed on Sulfur Island, known to us as Iwo Jima.  And so began 35 days of combat that cost the lives of 6,281 Americans.

Semper Fi.

Agile and Management?

Steve Denning wrote had a two part article titled "Why Do Managers Hate Agile?" and "More On Why Managers Hate Agile" over at Forbes.

Today in History

One of my early Heroes of the Marine Corps, Jack Lucas birthday was today.  He died in 2008.   He won the Medal of Honor at age 17 on Iwo Jima.  He joined the Marine Corps at 14, pretending to be of age and forging his mother's signature.  He stowed away to be with a friend in the 5th Marine Division and headed to Iwo Jima.  Semper Fi.

You can hear him tell the story in his own words.

Happy Birthday Chuck Yeager

Today is the birthday of fighter pilot, aviation pioneer, General Chuck Yeager!  Born February 13th, 1923, the General turns 92 today!

Captain Chuck Yeager with the X-1 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The Saturday Night Movie - San Francisco

Tonight's The Saturday Night Movie is San Francisco (1936) starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy.  A fun movie, set in the Barbary Coast of old San Francisco in a time leading up to the film's climax, the 1906 Earthquake.  Great singing, man Jeanette MacDonald could sing!  Fun 1936 special effects for the earthquake.  Some good historical bits: the Army taking charge, looters shot, and a couple of great shots of Marines on guard, patrol and demolition duty.  Then a final scene of redemption for Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey the priest gets him and Gable gets the girl.

The Great Raid

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the raid to free American POWs from the Japanese at Cabanatuan.  A close run thing too.  The Japanese 14th Army had made the decision to "Kill-All" the POWs they held in the Philippines, and had already massacred 150 POWs at the Puerto Princesa Camp. Captain Bob Prince, C.O. of Company C, 6th Ranger Battalion spoke with the Seattle PI.  

It is one of those great stories of World War 2.  According to Bob Prince, he was satisfied with the movie portrayal in The Great Raid.  This story was first told by John Wayne in Back to Bataan, a 1945 film that opens with scenes of the raid and includes some of the liberated POWs.  Both good films.

The Saturday Night Movie - El Cid

The Saturday Night Movie is El Cid (1961), starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.

"The fabled Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz (a.k.a. El Cid) overcomes a family vendetta and court intrigue to defend Christian Spain against the Moors."

A great movie!  Epic in duration, scope and stars.  So many from that era were.  

Day - 3

Day - 3

Actions
Get the pedometer out, check the battery, wear it starting with chores!

Eating

Breakfast

• 3 x Nescafe instant coffee with Coconut Cream

Lunch

• Italian Meat Sauce with a bit of Army Sauce
• 2 x Eggs
• .75L Water

Dinner - Takeout

• 1/2 pound Pulled Pork with BBQ Sauce
• 1/4 bag of Broccoli Slaw with red onion, dressed with olive oil/mustard/lemon juice
• 1 x Kombucha
• handful of Dark Chocolate chips

Snacking

• Handful of Chicharons with green salsa
• 6 x pc Tomato Candy (sundried tomato pieces)
• 2 x Carrots

Exercise

Observations

1. Fail - Did not get the pedometer out for chores.  That left off a bit.  Have it now at midday.  Not so many steps taken.  Need to up that in the morning.
2. Next, my food so far has no green in it!  
3. We ran into a time crunch and got Pulled Pork from a local BBQ place for dinner.

Data
2230 steps

Day - 2

Day - 2
Today I will weigh in, record the data and watch my food intake.  I believe I snacked a whole meal yesterday.  Scrutiny.

Actions

Eating

Breakfast - Intermittent Fast

• 2 x cup of Nescafe instant coffee with Coconut Cream
• 1 x cup of Nescafe instant coffee

Lunch - Joe's Special

• Eggs, Spinach, Grassfed ground beef.
• 1/2 Orange

Dinner - Italian Goat Sauce

• Italian Goat Sauce
• 2 x Carrots
• 1 x Kombuhca

Snacking - Bourbon

• 1 finger of Bourbon, shared

Exercise

1 - Mile Walk

• 8 x Strides

Observations

1. I should be using my pedometer to measure activity.  That will be an action item for tomorrow. 
2. I am a little stiff but it's good.  I ran myself over the foam roller a bit.  If you don't have one, get one.  They are exquisitely effective.  Yes it will hurt when you roll your IT Bands, but the aftermath?  Amazing.
3. Snacking was less.  Bourbon, yes it is a cheat.  I poured one finger in a glass, perhaps an ounce?  We shared it watching a Joe Lamp'l episode where he visits Eliot Coleman at Four Seasons Farm.  Great episode, very inspiring, very relaxing.

Data
Weight = 253 pounds.

Day - 1

Day - 1

It's the 2015 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge.  No it is not, but it is close.  I say that because I am winging it on my own this time.  My goal is accountability, public notification and measuring the progress.  Come along as I break out of the rut and get on track.

Actions
I just got up, got out and did today.  It felt good!

Eating

Breakfast - Intermittent Fast

2 x cup of Nescafe instant coffee with Coconut Cream

Lunch - Tuna Salad

• 1/4 bag of broccoli slaw
• 1 x Can of Tuna in olive oil
• 1 x Hardboiled egg
• Dressing - Olive Oil Lemon juice

Dinner - Slow-cooked Italian Meat sauce over steamed broccoli

• Grassfed ground beef and Italian goat sausage, sun dried tomatoes
• Steamed broccoli with some butter

Snacking

• 2 x Pinch of dark chocolate chips
• 2 x Carrots
• 2 x pc Chicharon Con Carne
• 1 x Hardboiled egg
• 2 x Kombucha

Exercise

1 - Mile Circuit

• 4 x Strides
• 2 x Sprints
• 4 x Squats (Set of 10 reps)
• 3 x Wall Push-ups (Set of 10 reps)

1/4 Mile walk
1/4 Mile jog

Observations
I ate too much.  Simple.  Look at my snacking, it seems like an additional meal.  I felt hungry and I fed that.  That is something to work on!  Eating when necessary not desired.  Cool, identified something already!  I will do a weigh tomorrow morning.

The Red Queen's Trap

Great reminder from John Robb.  Terrorism as a Red Queen's race.  Well said.  He originally posted about it in 2009.  It is truth, more so for the French now and the remainder of the EU.  Good source link at the bottom of the current post.  Read them both.